CONJUNCTIONS: A Web Exclusive
Spencer Selby
for MP
Hourglass figure
receiving threats
Lock and key at the gate
lost in song
Some combination
that suddenness built
of the tongue's wandering eye
that sleepers enclose
in a boat sunk as it grows
that speaks behind water
an ocean of names
a blue voice calling
to an ancient love
Perfect circle, fever image
in a poem written to release
another paradox
from your head
Self as sign as suspect
greater than the whole
prison library
reciting its laws
Music moving toward a center
like a slow match burning
through an endless wall
Flames and smoke rising up
in a cloud you want to paint
with the day's final glow
Single word picture
created because you
hope to meet its negative
two-note difference
in a book left out in the snow
Fault-line followed by a spark
crossing careless memory
with no reason at all
Telling you what you
want to hear but
cannot really defend
Telling you what
aspect of light
makes trouble for
those skeletons in the courtyard
embracing as never again
Sudden laughter back and forth
unfamiliar broken ice
scattered bones down the street
Experienced rain falling
tremor of body opening
terrible source of meaning
that can't make out
where the path turned ugly
that can't put down
the mark of a lifetime
that can't stop searching
for something more effective
than a modern eye-witness
to the end